A very fair review. This is the perfect fodder (pun intended) for winding down with a large glass of Chianti Rufina after a busy day. I found the CG work a little obtrusive at times and, yes, it is slower than a snail, but it has a distinctive charm which makes you happy to forgive a few faults. (Surely, the whole point about your favourite restaurant is that you don't want it to change much over time. That's why you liked it in the first place.)

On the other hand, I do think that, of the two adaptations of her work, House of Five Leaves comes across as the better attempt overall.

On the other hand, I do think that, of the two adaptations of her work, House of Five Leaves comes across as the better attempt overall.

I never read the manga, but the anime for House of Five Leaves really sucked me in. I'm grateful that NIS America released it.

The manga Ristorante Paradiso never clicked with me, but I think it's great that the anime got released the west. It's nice to see niche titles get a chance. Hopefully it will do well enough for Lucky Penny to snag a few more of them.

On the other hand, I do think that, of the two adaptations of her work, House of Five Leaves comes across as the better attempt overall.

The Ristorante/Genta manga is a lot better than the anime adaptation IMO. The only thing that the anime really trumps the manga with is having a soundtrack featuring Ko-Ko-Ya and Orange Pekoe, along with a nice cast of seiyuu.

I too watched this a while ago when it was first streaming and i'm glad that it was brought up that the Italy which exists within this show is not particularly true to life (as i really do not have much knowledge on modern day Italy). And yes this show was very slow, to the point where it was nearly impossible to marathon. I think it would have benefited if the drama lead to some sort of emotional payoff that could differentiate it as something other than "this show has lots of old guys".

And now that it was brought up that Nicoletta looks like Nami this show is going to pop into my head from now on when One Piece is mentioned...

This show was my first introduction to Natsume Ono. Since that time I have bought most of her manga currently licensed, and The House of Five Leaves is probably an overall favorite of mine. I like her style of storytelling.

I remember when this first streamed, I was impressed by how different it was compared to much of the other anime I was watching. Since then, I have read the source material, which I like a bit better. The anime is actually based on two connected titles, the one volume Ristorante Paradiso, and the three volume follow-up series Gente. The anime surprisingly spends even more time on Nicoletta and Claudio than the books do. The manga series is more about the entire group of people who are connected to the restaurant. It is truly an ensemble slice of life, with no particular individual at its center, using Nicolleta as more of a catalyst rather than protagonist.

One of the things that surprised me when reading the books was how much I liked Olga's husband, Leonardo. His character is more clearly defined in the books. There is also a specific thread of humor sprinkled throughout the manga that didn't quite translate into the anime adaptation. Still, Im glad I have both on my shelves, since it has such a different tone than everything else. I like to use it as an example when I am trying to show someone how varied anime can be.

Oh, and...

I would strongly urge anyone who liked the House of Five Leaves anime, to read the manga. While the anime did a really good job of adapting the source material, the manga takes the story even further, and has one of the most satisfying conclusions I've encountered.

As someone who generally has found herself interested in/involved with somewhat younger male-types, the ojiisan fetish is kind of lost on me. Still, the Ristorante Paradiso manga (single volume as it were) was interesting enough that I didn't feel cheated out of my $6 dollars from the used book store in which I found it. And because I adored the House of Five Leaves manga I feel I should give any Natsume Ono-related property a proper try. Yet I still can't decide if I should just throw caution to the wind and buy this anime series or just wait 'til it's irresistibly cheap...

tuxedocat wrote:

The anime is actually based on two connected titles, the one volume Ristorante Paradiso, and the three volume follow-up series Gente.

Would you perhaps recommend the follow-up manga Gente in lieu of the anime series, if one had to choose? Because everything else being equal I find that I tend to get more emotional pay-off from manga than anime these days...

and an odd decision to translate the Japanese honorific term for “patroness” as “Madam” rather than the more Italian “Signora” gives Ristorante Paradiso a sort of Occidentalist view of Italy.

That's unfortunate.. though if this were set in Japan, you'd be accused of being a weaboo

I thought about that. I think if there hadn't been so much random Italian dropped in the show this might not have bothered me, but as it was, my reaction was to grow more and more irritated each time I read "madam" across the bottom of my screen. I suspect that the fact that (confession ahead!) I didn't actually like the show on a personal level probably contributed to my irritation as well...(unitmikey hit my major complaint in one with his/her comment about emotional payoff vs lots of old guys.)

tuxedocat makes a good point that the main draw of this is that it is so different. She's also right that Ono's original manga tend to be better than their anime adaptations, so unless you really don't get the old guy fetish, don't let the pacing of the anime turn you away from the manga.

unitmikey wrote:

And now that it was brought up that Nicoletta looks like Nami this show is going to pop into my head from now on when One Piece is mentioned...

Bwahahaha!!! My evil plan comes to fruition! Now I will no longer be the only one!!!!

And now that it was brought up that Nicoletta looks like Nami this show is going to pop into my head from now on when One Piece is mentioned...

Bwahahaha!!! My evil plan comes to fruition! Now I will no longer be the only one!!!!

You're not the only one, I noticed that, too.

To the reader who asked "Buy Gente manga or the anime?" I'd say, buy the manga. It has a good deal more emotional impact, and I think the "old guy fetish" is pretty much in the background as the manga just tells the stories of the people in and around the restaurant.

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